Steverson v. Hosp. Auth. of Ware County

199 S.E.2d 881, 129 Ga. App. 510, 1973 Ga. App. LEXIS 1038
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJune 20, 1973
Docket47982
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 199 S.E.2d 881 (Steverson v. Hosp. Auth. of Ware County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Steverson v. Hosp. Auth. of Ware County, 199 S.E.2d 881, 129 Ga. App. 510, 1973 Ga. App. LEXIS 1038 (Ga. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinions

Clark, Judge.

Plaintiffs, a widower and his two minor sons, sued a hospital and doctor for the homicide of Mary Frances Steverson, the wife and mother of plaintiffs. After the jury returned a verdict for defendants, plaintiffs sought a new trial which was denied from which denial this appeal ensued.

Mrs. Steverson was a patient of defendant doctor. Two days after an office visit she was admitted to defendant hospital in a condition of advanced pregnancy where her condition was such that she was promptly taken to the delivery room before her doctor could be contacted and delivery took place with the assistance of an extern, this being the name applied to student doctors who serve a portion of their last year in hospitals. About two hours after giving birth the patient began bleeding profusely, this being described as an abnormal development. Various treatments and medications were administered but about 11:30 p.m. she went into shock from loss of blood. Defendant doctor ordered two units of blood cross-matched which was supplied by defendant hospital. Plaintiffs assert various acts of negligence but principally that the administered blood was erroneously mismatched with the result that her death occurred. Defendants denied any negligence.

1. Appellants earnestly argue the general grounds, the enumeration of error contending that the evidence concerning the mismatching of blood "stood before the jury unrebutted and unchallenged.” We have reviewed the three volumes constituting the transcript of the trial, including the numerous exhibits introduced by both parties. We find that there is a conflict in evidence which was properly submitted to the jury for determination. Although there were in the physician’s office file two reports from the Georgia Department of Public Health (T. [511]*511370, 371) indicating the blood type of deceased to have been O Positive there is also evidence indicating that deceased did not have type O Positive blood but actually had type AB Positive blood.

Twelve documents from the hospital’s blood bank records (T. 355-A, 356, 357) state the patient’s type to be AB Positive. Although the Georgia Department of Public Health records came from the office files of defendant doctor they contained a printed caveat: "Results insufficient for adequate pre-transfusion testing.” The jury apparently accepted the hospital’s work in matching blood to be more reliable and superior to that done by the state laboratory. "In passing on the general grounds of a motion for new trial, this court passes not on the weight but on the sufficiency of the evidence. It is our duty to determine whether the verdict as rendered can be sustained under any reasonable view taken of the proofs submitted to the jury. . . It was the province of the jury, and theirs alone, to put their appraisal upon the proofs submitted to them.” Ingram v. State, 204 Ga. 164, 184 (48 SE2d 891). "Where the trial judge approves the verdict, the sole question for determination by this court is whether there is any evidence sufficient to authorize it.” Adler v. Adler, 207 Ga. 394, 405 (61 SE2d 824).

Similarly the evidence was conflicting on such issues of fact as to the cause of patient’s excessive bleeding and her death, whether there was undue delay on the part of the doctor and hospital personnel, and if timely and proper medications and transfusions were given. The jury’s verdict represented their decision on such conflicts favorably to defendants including in effect their acceptance of the defense contention that there was no blood incompatibility. A review of the transcript discloses sufficient evidence to authorize the verdicts rendered by the jury. Thus the denial of the motion for new trial based on the general grounds was not error. See Neloms v. Carmichael, 125 Ga. App. 331 (1) (187 SE2d 555).

2. The second enumeration of error contends the trial court should not have permitted the defendant doctor to testify under objection to the following question posed by counsel for the defendant hospital: "Based on the hospital records and your personal knowledge of this case, what is your opinion as to whether or not the nurses and hospital personnel exercised such reasonable degree of care and skill as is ordinarily employed by hospitals in the area of Waycross in connection with the actual [512]*512delivery and the subsequent care of the patient, Mrs. Steverson? ...” (T. 143, 144, 145).

Quoting verbatim, this assignment of error reads: "As stated at the trial the objection was timely interposed on the ground that the question'. . . calls for a conclusion of fact. . . which would be for the jury. The degree of care exercised is a question particularly and peculiarly and exclusively for the jury...’ (T. 143), that 'The doctor is permitted. . . to testify as to what the accepted and approved practices and procedures are. He is not permitted to testify that these procedures and practices done by the hospital meet the standard tests. He can tell what they are and what the procedures are. Whether or not they met a standard, that is purely a question for the jury to decide, Your Honor.’ (T. 143); and that 'Your Honor, it calls for a conclusion on legal standards. They are legal standards required by law, and the only people who can make that conclusion would be the jury.’ (T. 143-144).”

This enumeration of error is thus addressed solely to whether the question and answer invaded the province of the jury. In short, is a doctor as an expert permitted to testify concerning the degree of care and skill exercised by nurses and hospitals?

In Summerour v. Lee, 104 Ga. App. 73 (2) (121 SE2d80); Wilson v. Kornegay, 108 Ga. App. 318, 320 (132 SE2d 791), and Shea v. Phillips, 213 Ga. 269 (2) (98 SE2d 552), we find the following statement: "It is the general rule in this jurisdiction that laymen, even jurors and courts, are not permitted to say what is proper medical and surgical treatment, for that is a medical question.”

In Pilgrim v. Landham, 63 Ga. App. 451, 454 (11 SE2d 420) this court said: "What is the proper method of diagnosing a case is a medical question to be testified to by physicians as expert witnesses. Laymen, even jurors and courts, are not permitted to say what is the proper method of diagnosing a case for discovering the nature of an ailment . . . And where, measured by the method shown by medical witnesses to be negligence, the evidence shows a bad result, it is the province of the jury to say whether the result was caused by the negligence. However, the court and the jury must have a standard measure which they are to use in measuring the acts of the doctor in determining whether he exercised a reasonable degree of care and skill. They are not permitted to set up and use any arbitrary or artificial standard of measurement that a jury may wish to apply. The proper standard of measurement is to be established by testimony of physicians for it is a medical question.”

[513]*513In Wilson v. Kornegay, 108 Ga. App. 318, supra, p. 321, first paragraph, it is at least implied that a physician would be permitted to actually testify that, "the defendant was guilty of malpractice.”

The case of Fincher v. Davis, 27 Ga. App. 494 (4) (108 SE 905) appears to be directly in point and controlling in this case. In the cited case, the physician-witness for the plaintiff was asked, "Was this operation done in a skilful manner?”, and answered affirmatively.

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Bluebook (online)
199 S.E.2d 881, 129 Ga. App. 510, 1973 Ga. App. LEXIS 1038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steverson-v-hosp-auth-of-ware-county-gactapp-1973.